Will new thriller make publishing history?

New Delhi: The yet-to-be released thriller "Johnny Gone Down" by Karan Bajaj is set to make publishing history with a first print run of 50,000 books, billed as one of the biggest ever in India for a work of fiction. The thriller will be published by HarperCollins-India at an affordable price of Rs 99. "It is the first time HarperCollins-India is aiming to achieve nearly 100,000 copies in a year with the first print run of 50,000 for an Indian author at such an attractive price," Lipika Bhushan, head of marketing at HarperCollins-India, said.

The book narrates the racy tale of 40-year-old Ivy League scholar, Nikhil Arya, who is broke, homeless and minutes away from blowing his brains. An innocent vacation turns into an intercontinental journey that sees Nikhil first become a genocide survivor, then a Buddhist monk, a drug lord, a homeless accountant, a software mogul and a game fighter. Bajaj is also the author of "Keep off the Grass". His new book is also being used by the publishing house as a brand emblem to promote mass market commercial fiction and thrillers with a multi-pronged publicity campaign, sources said. A source at HarperCollins said: "The publishing house was promoting commercial mass market fiction this year. It is a genre we have been promoting over the last couple of years very aggressively." "Books such as `Almost Single`, `The Zoya Factor`, `Bombay Rains` and `Keep off the Grass`, `Married But Available`, `Secrets and Lies`, and very recently `Keep the Change Year After Year` have been a series of titles from Indian authors for the Indian audience that end up doing big numbers," Bhushan said. The publisher is using the book as a "brand symbol" for the genre of commercial thriller that is beginning to come of age in India with a new crop of young writers, who are fusing western classical thriller models with `desi` sensibilities, sources at HarperCollins said. The publishing house had earlier mounted a similar publicity blitz for Sam Bourne`s thrillers in India. "As Johnny, the protagonist, is an interesting character, the marketing drive is to get readers inquisitive about Johnny with a `Who is Johnny Campaign`. The USP of the campaign that will roll out in the next two weeks will comprise a mix of great price point, quality content, advertising (all media) and retail level promotions, events, and heavy online promotion," Bhushan said. Author Bajaj said the novel was a "deeper darker Forest Gump-ish adventure". "It relates the almost bizarre, almost surreal series of events that transform a pretty ordinary NASA scientist into a genocide survivor, then a Buddhist monk, a drug lord, a homeless accountant, software mogul and then a game fighter," the writer said. Bajaj said he was inspired by both films and literature. "I was influenced as much by the dark, gritty mood of films like `Oldboy`, `The Deer Hunter` and `Amores Perros` as by the incredible journey of `Forrest Gump` (which is one of my favourite novels and a mighty decent film as well) and the surreal adventures of Sonchai Jitpleecheep, the Buddhist detective-protagonist of John Burdett`s Bangkok novels, `Bangkok 8`, `Bangkok Tattoo` and `Bangkok Haunts`," he said. IANS